Inspired by Art Waste - Leave Nothing Behind

I wouldn't say that polymer clay is the most "green" craft form, so when it comes to my leftover waste from creating my pendants and such, I try to use it up rather then throw it away. I have detailed some ideas on the blog before about reusing my leftovers. Check these posts:
Through My Eyes Anything Can be Art
You Were Inspired by What - Leftovers
I was doing some Spring cleaning the other day, peeling paint off of my palettes and off of my paint bottles and was brainstorming on what I could do with the pieces of dried paint. I have made ACEO's from my dried paint before, but I wanted to do something else. I had stacked the paint from the palettes on top of each other and I really loved the look of the colors and layers so I decided that I would put a whole through the middle o the stack, insert a dowel and create a cool sculpture. The great thing is that I won't have to throw them in the trash and will end up with a unique piece that has sentimental value since it kind of represents all my hard work. Another cool feature is that when I use recycled plastic butter lids as palettes, so some of the paint actually has the recycling symbol imprinted into it. Perfect for recycled art. I posted about this idea on Flickr and got another idea from a comment made by Lisa Peters from Lisa Peters Art. She suggested "You could take one of those scrap book paper punches and make squares and do a funky mosaic?" Her idea along with a posting about jewelry gave me another idea. I could punch circles (my favorite shape) out of the layered paint and stack them on a head pin to create some fun funky earrings. With that idea in mind, I went to work and found that it is fairly easy to punch through the paint. Here's what I came up with:

































The paint is pretty rubbery and extremely lightweight so it's perfect for earrings. I can see a necklace too, but I don't have that much leftover paint available yet. I don' t think that I will sell these, but I will definitely wear them.

I also have a collection of dried paint that I peeled off of my paint bottles . They come in great colors and shapes, and I hate to through them away. They are bit more fragile than the paint from the palettes, so I thought maybe I could embed them in resin and create a pendant or ACEO? Maybe just make resin blocks that can then be turned into a wall piece? Here is a picture of the little leftovers. Let me know if you have a good idea of how I could use them.

I just put in a pitch for an Etsy Storque article about reusing/recycling the waste from your art. If anyone has done something similar and would like to be included, let me know.

Check my "Leave Nothing Behind" Flickr Set to see all my "leftover" creations.

Take some time this week to look at your waste and what you leave behind once you have created your art of choice. Is there anything you can make with the scraps? How could you incorporate them into another art piece? Stretch your imagination and help the environment at the same time! if you come up with a cool idea, let me know. I would love to feature it here on the blog!